Chelsea flower show

As parents of adult kids, isn't it a pleasure to take pride in some of their achievements.
Last week was the week of the Chelsea Flower Show in London
and our daughter Jaci exhibits her art ( huge canvases Georgia O'keefe style)
and a wonderful range of giftware decorated with her original designs.
art@jacihoganart.com
Onboard Absoluut2 we love to feature flowers in many ways, especially the spring flowers
on our dutch cruises in April and May. There are some spectacular desplays of all varities
of flowers as well as the garden designs. But for us, one of our favourite displays in the pavillion,
was the gold medal winning vegetable stand, spectacular indeed.
One of our eco-efforts for this year on AB2, is to source our produce from the local producers
in each of the areas that we cruise through, both in Holland and France. Thus we really appreciate
the European way of merchandising, where they are focusing on offering, in fact competing for
the products grown closest to where they will be sold to us, by giving provenance by the kilometer.

Historic car rally Ypres

It never rains, that it pours.

I have just been asked to be the mobile hotel at the Ypres Rally

So I have to decide if I would prefer to be at a Jazz festival or a Historic car rally.

Now I love Jazz, and have been to many Montreux Jazz festivals.

But CARS....

My ideal house, would be a 12 car garage with a view & somewhere to live.

So lets see what pans out.

Jazz festival.

Ab2 has been invited to be present at the 31 st. Django Reindhardt Festival.

June 23 - 27 in Samois sur Seine.

And we are thinking that this would be a good way to spend a week , tucked in behind the island on the Seine, with all the music wafting over the decks.

Local produce

Ab2 has always been "LOCAL"
i.e. when in Holland ... buy Dutch
& when in France buy French.
But I am getting a lot more serious about sourcing as close to home as possible.
Mainly to reduce the amount of fuel the trucks use to ship produce all over the world.
& secondly to promote local producers.
We operate in their area ... enjoy their scenery... we should put our money in their economy.
And that way they will still be there producing next year .
If we all did this ... world wide ... how may litres of fuel could we save P.a.

And how much flavour we can get with in a 50 Km range of the boat.

A few notable exceptions will be seen...

Keukenhof

absoluut2 completed her tour of Holland for 2010.
And every one was very happy.
The weather was unseasonably cool,
but the advantage was that Keukenhof remained in perfect condition .
see photo taken in last week.

We are now preparing for the trip South to France.

Portuguese.

Ab2 had an interesting, last week.
Cruising around Holland, unfortunatly in the rain,
But with a very happy, sunny family from Portugal.
Un fortunately my Portuguese is non existent.
But fortunately Caroline a student at Newcastle University (International Relations Major)
was very able to translate back & forth between English & Portuguese.
Everyone enjoyed the week, & they are planing to return next year, with enough people to fill 2 barges.